Paper crafting with a little shine

GIU – Day 4 — Mixed Media

Hello and welcome back to my 4th day of Growing in Unity. I really had a great time putting together these projects, and I hope you enjoy seeing them. Again, if you leave a comment on each of my posts this week, you could win a grab bag of stamps from Unity Stamp Company!

Today, I’d like to show you one of my new favorite art mediums — mixed media. I am in love with this type of art. You can do this on a card, a canvas, a journal — there are so many possibilities. Here is a sample of two pages I did in my art journal:

Ah, I love it! There is no right or wrong in mixed media. Honestly, you can just let go and do what you feel. It can be a little messy, but it is so very worth it. It is so much fun to do.

To make these pages, I created the background using Color Burst Powders (you can find these in many craft stores — I got mine online). One thing to remember with Color Burst — a little dab will do ya! All you need is a little tap of the bottle to get a little poof of powder on your page. Choose your colors, tap away and then spritz the paper with water. That’s when the magic happens! Water activates these powders and really do make these lovely “bursts” of color on your page. If you look closely, you can see little specks of color that form when the water hits the powder. There are also larger sections of more saturated color. If you feel a color is too saturated, touch a tip of a paper towel into it and pick up some of that color. You can move the wet paper and swirl the color. You will get different looks depending on whether you air dry or heat dry the paper. One thing is for certain. You will never get the same look twice.

Once I had the backgrounds set, I stamped the images I wanted in black with VersaFine Black Ink. I then sprinkled Clear Gloss Embossing Powder over the images and set it with a heat tool. This makes the images really pop on your page. I then added some tags that I made. The backgrounds and some of the stamping on the tags were done with the new Tim Holtz Distress Oxide Inks and a blending tool. Again, water activates the “oxide” part of these inks. You will get different looks depending on whether or not you add water. No water will give you more of a chalk ink look like the tag on the left hand page. I added some buttons, twine, ribbons, mini clothespins, etc. to embellish. The names of the stamp sets used here are all from Unity Stamp Company and are called: “You Can Do It,” “You Matter,” “Never,” “Don’t Be Like The Rest of Them,” and “Journee Girl.”

I also have a couple tags to show you that were made with the Distress Oxide Inks and many of the same techniques explained above. Here they are:

These were made with the kits “Never,” and “Loving Today” from Unity. Embossing paste, stencils, pearls, twine, ribbon, buttons, sequins, flowers, Prills, etc. were also added or used to create these. These may be destined for cards, journal pages, a canvas or media board — I just haven’t decided yet.

Mixed media is so much fun to do. There are no mistakes here — only happy accidents! There’s really nothing to lose, so I highly recommend trying it.

Thank you for stopping by, and please come back tomorrow for my final (*sniff, sniff…*) day of Growing in Unity.

Thank you so much, Amy! I’m so glad you stopped by my blog today! The Oxides are coming out in more colors next month — so many of our favorite Distress Ink colors will be available to try! And Color Burst is so fun…and I say play with it — I’ve seen other ways to use it, such as applying it like watercolor paint. Endless possibilities!